Shmups Skill Test シューティング技能検定
Some say you’re only as old as you feel. Shmups Skill Test says you’re only as old as you shoot! Shmups Skill Test is a clever way to evaluate your shmup skills in the form of a “gamer age”. Challenge and unlock shoot-’em-up-based minigames in a gauntlet of shmup nostalgia goodness. When it’s over, you’ll be given a score and gamer age. The younger your gamer age, the better! Bring up to three friends along for the ride and feel young (or old) again together.
Features:
- Keep on your toes with quick-hitting skill challenges
- Practice individual challenges or go for the randomized test
- Receive a strict score and “gamer age” based on shooting, dodging, judgement ability and more
- 1-4 local player support
- Replay support
- Rockin’ soundtrack sometimes bordering on the bizarre
- Includes Steam Achievements, Leaderboards, and Cloud saves
Are you ready to know your gamer age?
A Historical Shmup
Crafted so that anyone can pick it up and enjoy it, Shmups Skill Test features Triangle Service CEO Toshiaki Fujino’s nihilistic and surreal humour and parodies guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any fan of the shmup genre. The Steam version is based on the Shmups Skill Test included in the arcade game Shooting Love 2007.
The arcade version is a long running hit, still to be found in arcades across Japan, despite many of its peers from the same time (2007) having been long removed. Its arcade sequel, included in Game Center Love. ~Plus Pengo!~, is also still going strong.
Furthermore, despite having been developed as an “examination” or “training” game, the versus play proved exciting enough to create the demand for competitions being held, something of a rarity for a shooting game. The Steam version takes this one step further, adding new tests (games) and the ability to play with up to 4 players. You can also focus on practice with the newly added ability to choose specific tests.
Of course, no shooting game would be complete without music. “Mr. Shooting Love Sound”, NAOTO returns but he’s not alone. With him, we have two guests in the form of Go Sato (of Raiden series fame) and WASi303 (from the Psyvariar series).
Game Discussion
Steam User 3
This is a surprisingly addictive shmup that will more than likely hold your attention for a few nights if you're interested in the "Brain Age" angle.
My first major complaint is no actual tate/portrait mode support. You CAN rotate the display, but it has no actual vertical monitor support, so people with a secondary monitor for tate gaming are out of luck. Who rotates their main monitor without changing from landscape to portrait just to play a game in that awkward way anymore? Really wish there were portrait mode resolutions supported.
There were 2 minigames I didn't like that I wanted to bring attention to (I don't know the names so bear with my descriptions while I wing it):
-Dodge Everything! This one shoots out a very predictable checkerboard pattern shot, vertical then horizontal. This one will either be a very easy one that you get without trying 19 times out of 20 for an easy 10,000pts, or a frustrating miss where you can't predict the horizontal shot depending on your skill level. As someone who falls in the former category, I say this minigame is a total detriment and it's removal would only make Shmups Skill Test slightly better.
-Grab the scores! This one consists of trying to grab 10,000pts worth of 100/1,000 skill bars flying off the screen within 10 seconds. This one will be frustrating until you realize the top of the screen is much easier to grab the points... then after you find that out, it still feels a bit too random when it pops up as far as being an indicator of your "game age".
Both of these minigames are a bit annoying if you think they're being considered hard into the ranking. That said, when trying to figure out the names of these minigames for the review, I looked in the practice section to see what they were called and couldn't find them. I took that as an indicator of these games having less of an impact on your actual ranking and more as just a "street fighter smash the car" bonus stage. Wish there was more of an indication to show this, as these are the main games that really take you out of the whole "game age" ranking system.
All that said, I enjoy the brain age gimmick and thought it was done pretty well. I can absolutely recommend this game for a few nights of fun shmup fun when you just want to jump into some shmup minigames, or if you want a nice warmup before diving into your next 1cc attempt at your shmup of choice.
P.S. In response to top negative review: this isn't a bait title. It's Shmup SKILL TEST, not Shmup TRAINER. That's like being mad at the SAT's for not helping you git gud at math :p
Steam User 1
kino